Information is typically stored and accessed on a computer system using an address that identifies where in the computer system the information can be found. For public networks such as the Internet, an identifier known as a Uniform Resource Locator (URL) is used to identify the address of a particular document. A URL typically includes a protocol identifier coupled to a domain identifier and optionally a filename specifying where in the domain the document is stored. Moreover, a specific location in a document may also be included in a URL. Due to all of this information, however, a URL can be quite complex for some documents, which makes it difficult for a user to remember URL's of previously-viewed locations, not to mention to type the URL's in the computer even if they are remembered.
As a result, many web or hypertext browsers—the computer applications that are typically used to view documents stored on the Internet—employ aliasing to facilitate user access to previously-viewed documents. Aliases, which are often also referred to as bookmarks, favorites, or shortcuts, typically include a unique word or phrase that a user can access to recall a document stored at a predetermined storage location (e.g., as identified by a URL). Aliases are typically maintained in drop-down menus, dialog boxes, explorer bars, etc., and can be individually selected by a user to retrieve a particular document, thereby eliminating the need for a user to type in a document's URL to retrieve the document.
Conventional web browsers enable a user to create, or add, aliases to an alias list. Typically, in response to an “add” request for a particular document being viewed, an alias is created with a location identifier pointing to the URL for the current document, and with an alias description or identifier that is generated from the title for the document. Given that a significant portion of the information stored on the Internet is found in hypertext documents formatted using a standard language known as the Hypertext Markup Language (HTML), many browsers access an HTML tag known as a title tag to obtain the initial alias description for a document alias. A title tag, which has the format “<TITLE> . . . </TITLE>”, is principally used by a web browser to provide a short title that is typically displayed in the title bar of a web browser when the document is being viewed.
After initial creation of an alias, a user is often permitted to manually edit or otherwise configure the alias description for an alias so that a custom identification of a document may be created by any user. Conventional browsers also permit aliases to be grouped together in folders to facilitate location of a particular alias in a list.
As many users “surf the net”, they tend to create a large number of aliases along the way, often resulting in the creation of large and cumbersome alias lists. As the number of aliases in a list rises, it becomes more difficult to locate particular aliases, and can induce users to select the wrong alias by mistake. Given the increasing bottlenecks and delays that can be experienced while surfing the Internet, navigation to incorrect locations can be time consuming and frustrating for users. Thus, both the organization of aliases, and the descriptions or titles of such aliases are often critical to the efficient use of aliases.
To improve the utility of aliases, therefore, a significant need exists for additional functionality for automating the creation of useful aliases. Conventional web browsers, however, provide only limited functionality in this regard. Often, the aliases automatically generated by conventional web browsers are limited in usefulness, and require significant manual editing or configuration by users to improve their utility for individual users. As such, the degree of manual intervention in the alias creation process is often greater than would be preferred by many users, which can decrease user productivity and lead to user frustration.
For example, one limitation of conventional web browsers is that the automated creation of aliases is typically limited to aliases of currently viewed documents. Thus, despite the fact that a more relevant document may exist for a given area of interest, a user is typically limited to aliasing a document that is currently being viewed. Otherwise, to alias the more relevant document, the user is required to either manually create an alias from scratch, or manually navigate to the other document before creating the alias.
Another limitation of conventional web browsers is that no consideration is made of the specific interests or situations of individual users. Any user that requests a new alias is typically presented with the same alias description suggestion. Depending on the user, the suggestion may or may not be useful. Title information, if used in the creation of aliases, therefore must also be generic enough to accommodate a maximum number of users. Often genericizing title information to accommodate many users, however, can lessen the overall utility of the title information.
Yet another limitation of conventional web browsers stems from the use of title information in generating alias information. In particular, by creating aliases based upon the information stored in a title tag for a document, the quality of an automatically generated alias description or identifier is wholly dependent upon the quality of the title created by the author of the document. Since the primary purpose of the title is unrelated to aliasing, titles are often inadequate to uniquely identify documents, thereby nullifying the benefit of such automatically generated aliases in the first place. Tailoring a title for a document for use as an alias may also not be an optimal solution for an author, as the information that makes a useful alias may not make a useful title.
Therefore, while conventional aliasing techniques can provide some assistance to users when navigating with web browsers and the like, a significant need still exists for improved automated generation of aliases to maximize the utility of automatically generated aliases and minimize the need for manual editing or configuration of such aliases by individual users.